


shattered into ash

by crowsandchrome



Series: this is called weeb shit in my notes so sure lets go with it [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 18??, Blushing, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Literal Sleeping Together, Other, Scars, Sharing Clothes, garlic bread, im 18 i swear a lot its relatable content, lowkey not really, rated teen for swearing again, they swear a lot ok theyre like, vague implication of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowsandchrome/pseuds/crowsandchrome
Summary: Everything felt a lot more in the dark.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Series: this is called weeb shit in my notes so sure lets go with it [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935013
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	shattered into ash

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: scars
> 
> title from bastille's 'things we lost in the fire'

"Can I stay over?" Lorelei muttered into his chest.

"For dinner? Or, like, for the night?"

"Second one."

"Yeah."

"Mmkay. Cool."

They fell silent, awkwardly fidgeting from where they had curled themselves into Darius' chest. Darius let out a yawn, which made Lorelei’s fingers twitch in an ill-suppressed flinch at the sudden breath.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I was just. Uh. Expecting you to ask why."

"D'you want me to?"

"I dunno, maybe?"

Darius leant on his elbow, cheek in his palm, and looked down at Lorelei. They'd started fiddling with the buttons on his shirt with one hand, tapping them with their thumbnail and carefully avoiding his gaze.

"Okay," he let go of their other hand, instead moving to thread the hair hanging loose over their shoulder through his fingers. "Why d'you wanna stay the night?"

"Uhm. 'S awkward at home right now. Doesn't feel right."

"... Is it Abram?"

Lorelei’s mouth twisted into a weak scowl, shivering at the edges. "Yeah. Keep thinkin' he's gonna come back."

Darius scooped a gloved hand back into his own, intertwining their fingers. "He's not."

"Mmhmm. I know. Doesn't stop it though." They had started scraping at the button.

Darius ducked his head down to press a kiss to their hairline. Their ears turned pink.

"You can stay. Mum probably wants you to, honestly."

"Surely that's the opposite of what parents would want their barely-an-adult son's partner to be doing when you have school tomorrow."

"Mum's a weirdo. Honestly, I think she wants me to get laid. It's uncomfortable."

Lorelei huffed. "Sounds it. If she mentions it at dinner I am leaving."

"If she mentions it at dinner, I'm coming with you."

Lorelei giggled, pressing their forehead into his sternum. 

"How is that even gonna work in the morning?"

Lorelei pulled back from his chest and looked at him. "What, us having sex?"

"No!" They both blinked for a moment before descending into giggles. "N-no,  _ school _ you filthy minded weirdo."

"I can go get my shit. Maybe I can give you my sweater or something, that's a couply thing to do right?"

"Your sweater would be huge on me, Lore."

"Yeah that's like. The point. 'S cute." They were blushing again. Darius leant down to press his nose against theirs. They pressed back immediately. "And it's like I'm staking my claim on y--"

Darius pulled back and shook his head. "Nope, no, no weird territorial shit until we've been dating more than a month, thank you very much."

"Rude. I'm still doin' it though."

"Yeah but you don't gotta  _ talk _ about it!"

"Whatever, babe." They moved forward, cupping his cheek with one hand, and slotted their mouths together. It was nice, feeling their thumb brush up and down his jaw, their mouth moving against his own, their legs tangled with his. It would've been a lot nicer had Kristofer not kicked the door down with his stupid long legs to scream at them.

"Stop having sex! Dinner's ready! Oh, you weren't having sex. Damn."

Lorelei, who apparently gained the ability to control their uncontrollable blushing problem the second anyone else entered the room, was more than a little incredulous. "The fuck d'you mean  _ damn _ ?! Do you  _ want _ to walk in on us fucking?"

"I mean, fuck no, but maybe if Darius gets laid he'll be nicer to me."

"I'm plenty fucking nice to you, Kris." Darius sat up, regretfully undoing the tangle of limbs he and Lorelei had twisted themselves into. "And please never talk about my sex life again."

"See! He's horrible to me."

"He said please, which is more'n I'm gonna do if you don't  _ get out _ ."

"Oh yikes, alpha no likey, I'm gonna go get the good garlic bread. Byee!" 

The pair let out a sigh before glancing at each other and giggling to themselves. The blush was back to creeping across Lorelei’s cheeks. Darius might have been a little selfish when it came to that, being the only one allowed to see it. Just a little. He pressed a kiss to their neck just to watch them flush darker. "We should go get the good garlic bread."

"Yeah we should." They hesitated a little before they kissed his jaw and stood up, pulling their hair back with practiced movements.

Darius pulled the stolen hairband off his wrist and handed it to them, indulging in a quick peck on the lips as he pulled them downstairs.

Maybe it was two or three. 

They still got the good garlic bread.

\---

After dinner, Lorelei had made a quick stop by their house to pick things up. Darius was doing homework, already in his pyjamas, when a grey jumper was rather unceremoniously dumped on his head. Lorelei pressed a kiss to the top of his head and wrapped their arms around his shoulders. "Nerd."

"At least I didn’t end up in detention all five days of the week back in secondary school."

"Just say you're into delinquents and go, buddy."

"Am I being friendzoned right now?"

"You can't change the subject~"

Darius sighed, and  _ didn't _ blush, whatever Lorelei would tell you, as he tugged the jumper off from his head. He ran a hand through his hair to calm the static. "Go get ready for bed you flirty little bastard."

"I dunno who you're callin' little, I'm like four inches taller than you."

Darius tugged the sweater on as he formulated his perfect plan for vengeance. "Three, actually. Go get ready for bed."

Lorelei, even though they were supposed to be, was not blushing. Instead, they leant incredibly close to him, resting their hands on his chair's armrest. There was something heated in their eyes. Darius felt like he was on fire. "You do look pretty cute in that."

Darius couldn't have responded if he tried.

Lorelei snickered at his expression before they placed a kiss on the tip of his nose and turned around to take their shirt off.

Darius was uncomfortably  _ warm _ and he couldn't take his eyes off them. Lorelei had always done everything in an oddly attractive way, even before they'd dumped the weird emo hair, before they even knew Darius  _ existed _ . They were sleek, more genuinely feline than any other werecat he’d seen, and they were strong. Darius, who  _ definitely _ did not stare at their back muscles while they took their shirt off--the way they pulled it off from the back of their neck and over was definitely something to think about--decided to disappear into the sweater, a sad memory of his failed master plan.

"You can look, you know. You were gonna see me shirtless eventually."

"I'm good." His voice came through the sweater muffled.

"... You sure about that?"

"Mmhmm! Don't let me stop you!" 

"Uh, actually, while you're there, can you like. Not look at my chest. Tonight."

"Probably? You have a nice chest."

"When I'm in my binder, yeah."

"You have a nice back too."

"... Your ears are  _ bright _ fuckin' red, babe."

"They're not."

"Were you staring at my back while I got changed?"

"...No."

"Uh huh. Well, I'm changed now anyway."

Darius pulled the neck of the jumper back down, stretching his arms to beckon Lorelei over. He hooked his arms around their neck and pulled them down to kiss them. Their hands fluttered around their waist until they grabbed the arm rests again.

Darius pulled back to look. "Oh. You took your gloves off?"

Lorelei froze. "I-I can put them back on again, it's fine, lemme just--" They stepped back in a rush.

"Hey, hey, no, you don't have to do that." Darius caught one of their hands, clenched in a fist. He stood up to grab the other one and ran his thumbs across their knuckles in tandem. "You don't have to do that if you don't want to."

Lorelei was looking everywhere but at him. "I. They're just. They're not exactly pretty."

"I dunno, Lorelei, your hands are very pretty." Darius blushed as his brain caught up with his mouth. "Not that. Not that I look at them a lot or anything."

Lorelei snickered, curling their head into his shoulder. Their hands relaxed.

The scarring  _ wasn't _ pretty, in all honesty. It stretched from the centre of their palms to halfway down their forearm, strings of pale, raised skin clawing up the inside of their fingers, crisscrossing and curling over tendons and muscle. They radiated even more heat than the rest of Lorelei’s skin, leaving afterimages in his nerves as Darius trailed a thumb over the patterns. Lorelei had stopped laughing into his shoulder, tension tugging at their shoulders. Their fingers half curled into their palm several times, as though they wanted to clench their hands into fists again, but they forced them open each time.

Darius turned his brain off for a moment, ignoring the blush that flooded to his face as he pulled Lorelei's hand to his mouth, laying a kiss at the centre of their palm. He heard a soft 'oh' as they pulled back to watch him do the same to the other. His brain only turned a blind eye long enough for him to finish, before he interlocked their fingers and hid his blazing face in their collarbone.

Lorelei swallowed, squeezing their conjoined hands and pressing their lips against the top of his head. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

They stood for a moment, willing the blushes away. Darius memorised the roughness of Lorelei’s palms against his own, something so intrinsically  _ them, _ despite its terrible origins, that he couldn't help thinking that maybe they were pretty after all.

They didn't speak as they pulled away, each avoiding the other's gaze as they got ready to sleep. They kept accidentally looking at each other at the same time, so much so that they were both bright red by the time they slipped under the covers of Darius' bed, carefully staying a hair's width away from touching.

Everything felt a lot more in the dark.

So when Lorelei, finally having the courage to  _ start _ something, turned on their side and rested their head on Darius' chest, it took a moment to breathe again.

Somewhere between Darius turning onto his side, fumbling a kiss in the dark, and feeling Lorelei’s warm palms curl around the nape of his neck, press at the small of his back through his shirt and under their sweater, he figured that he'd never be able to sleep alone again.

He waited, watching through closed eyelids as Lorelei's pulse slowed and they pressed their brow against his sternum. They slid both arms up under his shirt and pulled him closer, swallowing again.

"Thank you," Darius whispered.

"Anytime."

They slept. 

**Author's Note:**

> the main victory in this is that they get the good garlic bread
> 
> also, kinda requires context, lorelei's scars stem from suppression of emotions, leading to suppression of magic. lorelei has fire magic, specifically. their siblings have similar problems-- their brother has severe asthma, their sister has severe anemia. it's part of the worldbuilding. their piece of shit father is the reason for it all.
> 
> haha now that the sad bit's out of the way, thanks for reading gimme kudos tell me what you liked? idk


End file.
